The present invention relates to a transmitter system and a transmitting method, a receiver system and a receiving method and transmission media and more particularly to a transmitter system and a transmitting method, a receiver system and a receiving method and transmission media which are arranged so as to separately transmit/receive information concerning on contents of a program and information concerning on display and control of the program to be able to process the information efficiently.
The conventional EPG (Electronic Program Guide) system is roughly categorized into two systems of sending program information by adding to digital broadcasting or analog broadcasting to be transmitted and of sending the program information via a transmission path such as Internet different from the route of the broadcasting to be transmitted. The program information is displayed by an application program provided in the receiver side in advance in the former system. Meanwhile, a user is allowed to see the program information by using a predetermined browser in the latter system because the program information is described by a description language such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).
However, the former system allows to handle only information which can be displayed by the limited application of the receiver. Further, it transmits the information giving no consideration to cases of changing display of the information and of displaying the EPG in equipments having different processibility.
Meanwhile, although the latter system provides a high degree of freedom in display because it transmits the information described mainly in the description language such as HTML, it gives no consideration to editing and diversion of the program information. It also has another problem that because it requires transmission information per each screen, an amount of the transmission information increases. In connection with this, the present applicant has proposed a method of hierarchizing information and of transmitting only necessary information in Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 8-270916.
Thus, the prior art EPG system has had a problem that the transmission of the EPG information is not processed appropriately giving consideration to the case when the same program is broadcasted by different broadcasting stations and different time as often seen in local districts and minor stations.
The prior art EPG system has had another problem that the transmission of the EPG information is not processed appropriately giving consideration to the case when the program is delayed or postponed by some reason.
The prior art EPG system has had a still other problem that the transmission of the EPG information is not processed appropriately giving consideration to the degree of freedom in changing the display format and the layout on the receiver side.